CHART: The Incredible Inflation Of Super Bowl Ad Prices Since '67

It's not news that Super
Bowl advertising is the most expensive TV airtime available.
This year, the top price NBC got for
its Feb. 5 in-game inventory during the Giants-Patriots face-off
is $4 million.

On average, the network sold 30-second spots for $3.5 million
each -- still a significant rise from last year.

In fact, 2012 will go down as a banner year for the event. As
this chart shows, the price doesn't hold steady. While it always
trends up, there are years -- recessions, mostly -- when
advertisers shy away from dropping the colossal sums needed to
make an impact in the Big Game.

In 2010, after the financial crisis, the price dipped to $2.65
million, down from $3.05 million in 2009.

A decade earlier, 2001 and 2002 were double-decline years as the
dot-com crash was followed by the Sept. 11 attack on the World
Trade Center -- a one-two punch on commercial activity. (In late
2001 and early 2002 many companies stopped advertising
altogether.)

The first Super Bowl in 1967 cost just $40,000. By 1980, the year
of Mean Joe Green's Coke commercial, the price was up to
$723,000.

By 1984, when Apple aired
the iconic "1984" spot that set a new standard for blockbuster
ads, it cost nearly $1 million.